UCLA coach Ben Howland, who has been under fire for much of the last two years, reportedly is set to be fired Sunday, according to multiple reports.

The news comes less than 24 hours after the Bruins were eliminated in the NCAA Tournament. Howland has spent 10 years in Westwood, leading the Bruins to consecutive Final Fours in 2006, ’07 and ’08. The news was first reported by Yahoo! Sports and confirmed by ESPN and SportsNet New York.

An official announcement is expected to come Sunday. Late Saturday night, though, Howland told the Los Angeles Times that he had not yet talked to athletics director Dan Guerrero or anyone from the UCLA administration and UCLA spokesman Nick Ammazzalorso released a statement saying that Howland had not been fired.

Since reaching those three Final Fours, Howland’s club has missed the NCAA Tournament twice and failed to reach the second weekend the other three years. On Friday night, the Bruins were listless in losing to No. 11-seeded Minnesota, 83-63, giving more ammunition to his critics.

UCLA legend Bill Walton has been Howland’s most vocal critic. On numerous occasions this season, Walton used an ESPN broadcast to call for Howland’s firing. Howland, 55, says it’s not any sort of battle of personalities between him and Walton; it’s a matter of coaching style.

"I've just kind of—and this is the way you have to be in this job—removed myself or divorced myself from worrying about that," Howland told CBS Sports earlier this month. "I just try to control what I can control. I try to be honest. I try to take the high road. That's all I can do. I'm trying to control what I can control. I can't control Bill Walton. (Walton) has been to my house; he's had drinks at my house.

“But I just think it's like anything else. It gets tough when you're at a place 10 years, and I've been here 10 years. So it's 'Win a national championship! We got two of them! We were 60-0!' That's Bill Walton's point of reference. ... So even when we're having a great year, it's just a good year by UCLA standards."

UCLA won the Pac-12 regular-season title this season but lost in the Pac-12 Tournament championship game to Oregon. And then the Bruins lost in their first NCAA Tournament game to finish the season 25-10.

Howland has a 233-107 record in 10 years at UCLA, a .685 winning percentage. He has two years remaining on his contract with a $2.3-million buyout.

If UCLA follows through with the firing, as expected, the Los Angeles Times reports that VCU’s Shaka Smart and Butler’s Brad Stevens are atop Guerrero’s wish list.

Even though guard Shabazz Muhammad, named a second-team All-American by Sporting News, is expected to leave and be an NBA top-10 pick, the UCLA roster could be enticing should everyone else return. Point guard Larry Drew II is a senior, but he has a checkered past and might well be an addition by subtraction.

Howland was expecting to build next year’s team around guards Kyle Anderson and Jordan Adams and would have big men Tony Parker and the Wear twins to play supporting roles.

UCLA also has commitments from two top-60 recruits, guard Zach LaVine from Bothell, Wash., and guard Allerik Freeman from Henderson, Nev.